The Apocalypse of 2023
by LowePlays
Summary: Alex Granger and his fellow survivors of the zombie apocalypse are trying to survive by foraging/scavenging in cities. It's been two years since the initial out break and the band moves from place to place as zombies begin to multiply. The zombies are beginning to breed. How will Alex and his friends survive in this new problem they face? Rated T for mild language and Gore Violence


**Hey guys. I've been thinking about this story constantly since I saw The Walking Dead. A Zombie Apocalypse story would be awesome. So here I am with a new story. Please post a review for suggestions and main plot points you want to happen. I'm hoping to write chapters to this every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday so stick around if you want to read more. Anyways, on with the show.**

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><p>A zombie groaned as I hid behind a crumbling wall, sending a few rocks skittering. The hazy sky of the ruined Chicago lay in front of me and I'd bet it used to be beautiful. I could almost picture it. But the smoking ruins of the present day kept coming back. Now me and my new family scavenged the cities to survive. And that was my mission. Get some necessities and come back alive. To survive as a small scavenging party, it meant to attack only when attacked. Isaac, the leader of our band of survivors, had said. I hated it. The Hunters' vest I wore was a promise. A promise to avenge my father. To kill a thousand zombies in his name. And here was a zombie just asking for the hatchet I carried. If it noticed me, I had to be fast to kill it or I'd end up like my father. My pack already held a can of peaches, two boxes of noodles, a canteen, and a box with a dozen sniper bullets. If I turned back now, we'd survive another day but I would get 'the look' from Isaac while he polished his prized sword.<p>

I breathed in heavily the musky smell of Chicago and gripped my hatchet tighter. I attempted to stealthily sneak into the building across the way. It was a tall business building, but it most likely had a snack room. Unfortunately, there was hardly any cover over the street other than a few slabs of concrete that'd smashed into the asphalt. I'd have to stay low or sprint and my teenage urges told me to full out run across the street, signaling to every zombie within a mile where I was. But I had to survive. I had to keep my promise.

My breathe against the dusty ground under my face blew clouds into my face. I might've sneezed once or twice but my focus was on the zombies at the end of the street to my left. They were chattering and groaning to each other, speaking their weird language. I slowly moved across the street in army crawl position. I looked back and forth between my target and the two corpses. Bumping into a car, I stood up into a crouch, but in my movements, I bumped into the car and fell over, in plain sight of the two undead humans.  
><em>Damn...<em>  
>They blinked for a second before starting for me. They started at a walk, then into a run, then into an inhuman sprint for me. I hopped up as fast as I could and raced for the doors of the business tower. They were still aways off but closing very fast. I tried the doors but they were locked. I looked back at the zombies and smashed my hatchet into the door handle. The door immediately swung open. I kicked the door closed again and heard the ruined door click back into place for the last time. I looked back into lobby and stopped short.<p>

In front of me were a long staircase. I grumbled as I took them two at a time, stopping at every floor to see the contents of each floor. On the fourth, I found a mostly empty vending machine. Only three things were left; a Snickers bar, a pack of gum, and some Crunchy Joe's Chips. I quickly smashed the glass barrier and removed the limited inventory. I put the gum into my jeans pocket and raced back to the stairs. I heard a groaning from below so I knew the zombies were down in the lobby. They couldn't come up stairs very well and refrained from climbing them as often as possible, Logan had said. I still wasn't feeling safe that I was four stories above them but I knew I had time. I continued my climb up the stairs, still two at a time.

I only had to climb up two more floors before I found the break room. Or what was left of it. Most of the top floors were completely gone, but I did manage to find three intact Hell's Fire Energy drinks and a couple bags of smashed bags of Doritos and Crunchy Joe's.  
><em>Better time than never to get back... if I can lose the zombies... <em>  
>I heard the groans below me on the second floor and, as I looked below after my search, one missed a step and hit it's head on the step in front of it. I watched it's head as it broke apart and the undead disgrace fell limp. The other one merely looked back and continued it's slow approach. It'd take him thrity minutes to reach me, but I'll already have escaped by then. I looked down again to see the second zombie reach the one fourth mark. I wandered over to the edge of the sixth floor and looked down, wondering how to escape.<p>

Suddenly, I heard something in the stairwell, something like muffled gunshots. I walked over to the stairs and saw Joseph running up the stairs toward me, three steps at a time.  
>"Joseph," I called down. "What're you doing here?" Joseph was in his mid thirties, like Isaac, but he was our sharp shooter, not our leader.<br>"Well, I happened to be in the neighborhood," he said with his gruff voice. "Plus all the zombies started for this place so I cleared most of 'em out. I would have gotten all of them, but I see you took out one below." He then pointed to my hand. "What's that?" Blood ran down my hatchet and originated from my hand. I switched my hatchet to my other hand and looked at it. A deep cut was on my palm, freely flowing blood.  
>"I don't even know where I got it..." Looking at it made me go light-headed. Joseph pulled something out of the cut with a yelp from me. He held it in front of me. It was a shard of glass.<br>"C'mon," he said. "Let's go get you patched up."

Joseph lead me down the stairs and we snuck through the ruined city to a nearby Pharmacy and picked up a roll of bandages. While Joseph was rolling the gauze around my hand, he asked, "So now that you know there was glass in your hand, how'd you get the cut?"  
>"I broke the glass on a stupid vending machine. It was pretty damn useless. It only had a Snickers and some Crunchy Joe's." The pain from my cut burned my entire hand. The package of the bandage said it was coated with an infection-fighting drug. Effects could be mild discomfort and slight pains. That was a lie. I felt the burning to mid forearm, almost.<br>"Well, you're all set to go fighting zombies. Now let's get back to the rest of the group. We don't want to be left behind, y'know." He ripped the gauze and wrapped a light tape around it, securing it to my hand.  
>"Hey, thanks Joseph. I probably caused you more trouble than I'm worth. You used some of your bullets for me." He just laughed in my face.<br>"Alex, you keep getting funnier with your stupid apologies. Seriously. That's just what family does for each other. Now C'mon. We gotta get back to the rest in the High Rise Flats where everyone else is."

It's been two years now, since the zombie apocalypse started. When it first hit, I'd been in my Sophomore year in high school. I never got past there. I guess you could say I dropped out but most everyone else did too. Only difference is that I survived. My father is the only reason I'm alive today. He sacrificed himself so I could live. And that was the day I made my promise. That's the day I lost my father. That's the day I got this Hunters' vest. And that is also the day I killed my first zombie...

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><p><strong>I'm sorry guys, but I'm gonna have to give you guys that next time. I hope you enjoyed this first intro chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Stick around for next chapter on Thursday and feel free to read my other short stories. This is LowePlays, signing out.<strong>


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